I share some of Patrick Barkham’s views about the annual moving of clocks, forward and back (Notebook, 27 October), but he is wrong to suggest that there is anything irrational in the asymmetry of the times when the clocks are moved. The Earth moves round the sun in an ellipse, rather than a circle, thus the times between the two equinoxes, spring to autumn and autumn to spring, are not equal. The tilt of the Earth’s axis to the plane of the orbit introduces a further asymmetry. For most of the first half of the year, the sun time is behind our clock time and ahead for the second half. We do not, of course, have to do anything with the clock. We could just decide to move the nation’s timetable to an hour earlier in summer and move it back in the autumn. An alternative would be to start the day at 8am instead of 9am, which would have the effect of BST all the year round.
Ken Vines
Yelverton, Devon

• Join the debate – email [email protected]

Continue reading…
Source: Guardian Environment